Month: January 2026

Streaking 2026

/ rachelgoes262 / 1 Comment

Get your mind out of the gutter. Admit it. You saw this title and you immediately thought “naked.” This post doesn’t have anything to do with being naked. Streaking is a running term.

For over 20 years now, I have kept track of my annual mileage running. As a semi-professional athlete who made it once to the Olympic Trials, training logs are important. They offer insights into what worked and what didn’t. You notice patterns. They help you to tweak your training in the future to be able to improve. 

Over the years, my mileage has ebbed and flowed. It all depends on what is going on in my life and for what I am training. For a long time, my lowest mileage year was 2016. That was the year I ended up in the hospital with what looked like stroke symptoms. It took a long time to recover from the physical challenges I had that year. 

That said, 2025 is now my lowest mileage year. In fact, 2025 was so low mileage, it makes 2016 look like a marathon year (which it most definitely was not). Why was my 2025 mileage so low?

The neighbor abuse. I was repeatedly injured by the neighbors on purpose. I was harassed daily. Any time I left the house, I was chased by people on bicycles, had rocks thrown at me, and even had vehicles attempt to run me over a few times. It was not safe for me to go outside. That is not counting the active gunfire that started in the neighborhood in June of 2025 or the attempted arson that started in July. 

Trying to walk inside in 2025 while we were living at the old house was not an option either. My activities were frequently interrupted by their behavior and harassment. There were many times we had to hide in the basement for safety, and even then, the house visibly shook around us. 

In 2025, my health took a huge hit. In addition to not being allowed to run or live my life, I was attacked and physically injured by the neighbor’s multiple times. From July until when we left in August, they pounded on the door every single night at random times screaming “fire!” to interrupt our sleep and torment us. This was after their very real attempt to burn down the house in July that resulted in leaves on the tree in front smoking. 

On top of all this, I am battling health issues not related to the abuse we experienced. The doctor last spring told me he thought I had cancer. Everything is exacerbated by the abuse we were experiencing. It didn’t help that I was being physically prevented from leaving the house to seek medical care.

We were forced to move to a different part of the state for our safety. Now that we are in a safe place where I can leave when I need, I am getting the medical care I need. I am improving very, very slowly. There are still some major issues as the result of the physical injuries the old neighbors inflicted on me. But things are moving in a positive direction.

So where does streaking come into play? 

The fact that I was physically prevented from running and leaving the old house had a negative impact on my health. As part of my journey to get my health back, I have decided to start streaking for 2026. 

Streaking is a running term that means continuous days of running. Some runners are just streakers. They will do a mile a day, 3 miles a day, whatever is in their personal wheelhouse.

I have never been able to be a streaker due to overuse injuries. I have always needed at least a day off between runs. I can run every other day, but not every single day.

So, how am I streaking now?

I’m walking. I’m not running. 

Walking is not as strenuous, so I have been ok to streak with walking but not with running.

The doctor is very concerned about me being able to run as a direct result of the physical injuries I have from the old neighbors. However, they are ok with me running and are also encouraging it, for multiple health reasons. 

Of course, my goal is to be able to run again. I was only doing 3 miles a few times a week in my retirement. I don’t need to go far anymore. I just need to go.

Those neighbors at the old house took many things from me, including my ability to run. It is going to be a long road to get things back they took from me. There are things they took from me that I will never get back. Some injuries are permanent. 

So, I am streaking though 2026 with walking. How does it work?

I am walking for 30 minutes a day. I am typically walking about a mile in those 30 minutes. Due to the several feet of snow we have, I am walking inside my house right now. I spend 15 minutes walking upstairs and then 15 minutes walking downstairs. I even found a special “walking” radio station to listen to while I walk. 

I am protecting this 30 minute walk each day as “me” time for both my physical health as well as my mental health. After what we lived through, I deserve 30 minutes a day just for me.

The 30-minute walk is helping a lot with my mood. I’m a lot happier when I’m walking. Of course, I would love to run, but I am not physically able to do that yet. It will come. It’s 30 minutes a day I get to have fun. I have some of my best ideas when I am running/walking. I am able to work through a lot mentally. 

Physically, the walking is helping me to get stronger. There are many physical health benefits of walking from blood flow to musculoskeletal. After all, if you don’t use it, you lose it. 

Some days I don’t feel like walking. I am still forcing myself to do the 30 minutes. I always feel better afterwards. You just have to start. Don’t let things get you down. I am not going to improve if I do not put in the work. 

On the days I don’t feel like walking, I tell myself to just do the first 15-minute segment. After that first 15-minute segment, I always feel so good that I do the second 15-minute segment to complete the 30 minute walk. 

We are only halfway through January. If I cannot streak through 2026, I won’t beat myself up over it. I am fully aware that life happens and I may miss days this year. 

For now, I am protecting that 30 minutes a day as time that I need to recover from the abuse we experienced. I am doing my best to streak through 2026. As soon as the snow and ice are gone, I will be spending my 30 minutes outside. 

For now, I am spending my 30 minutes walking inside my house. I am not bored. I look forward to my walk time each day. 

Have you tried streaking? You don’t need to streak for a year like I am attempting. Some people will try for one week or for 30 days. You can customize your streak to you. I am doing 30 minutes, but you may do 15 minutes for a week. Try it out and see how you feel. 

Here’s to streaking 2026. No nakedness involved. 

Happy 6th Gotcha Day, Jolene!

/ rachelgoes262 / 2 Comments

Six years ago today, I brought Jolene home with a cone on her head. She took the cone off while in the carrier on the ride home. Jolene had her spay and the first of many dental surgeries that year. Jolene had been dumped at the shelter in a box with her kittens. The kittens had all been adopted. They waited to do her spay because the kittens were newborns and she was nursing when she first went into the shelter.

Jolene is now 11 years old. She is the life of our home. Jude was the soul of our home, but Jolene is the life. Things would be very boring without Jolene. She is a busybody and has to know everything that goes on inside the house and outside from her window. This is why she is our Lead Hedgewatch-er.

With Jude, Simon, and Jolene, I had a rare, bonded trio. Jolene ran herd on the boys. Jude would always think twice before playing with her and often thought better of it. Simon may be bigger than Jolene physically, but she always wins. Everyone knows who is in charge. Jolene is the Queen of our household. 

Jolene gives Flower a wide berth. Even Flower knows not to go after Jolene. Flower does not like the word “no.” Pretty much the only time Flower hears “no” is if she tries to go after Jolene. Flower and Jolene are the same weight but built differently and have vastly different personalities. Jolene is very respectful of Flower and a little scared of her because Flower can be grumpy.

In the new house, we are settling into new routines and still trying to decompress from the intense abuse and trauma we experienced. Jolene rarely transports stuffies in the new house, and I’m not sure why. In the old house. Jolene would move her stuffies around every day. Maybe she knew how much danger we were in there and she was moving them so that she always knew where they were for when we had to flee. 

In the new house, we are safe. Maybe she doesn’t need to move them around here because she knows there is no reason to leave this house and she can leave her stuffies without worrying about them. 

There is a neighbor cat named Snowball who likes to come onto our back deck and look at Jolene through the window. I joke and say Snowball is her boyfriend. Every once in a while, she will look out that window that Snowball can reach to look in and I wonder if she is looking for him. 

Jolene is the one who was traumatized the most by the neighbor abuse and is still trying to overcome that. It breaks my heart. Prior to the neighbor abuse at the old house. Jolene was a friendly, happy go lucky cat. She would go up to anyone who visited and came out of her carrier at the vet office like she owned the place. 

Since the neighbor abuse with the noise, ruptured ear drums, attempted arson, and nightly awakenings to the sounds of “fire” the last two months we were there, Jolene has become more fearful. She now hides whenever anyone comes to the house, which she never used to do. She doesn’t just hide when they were here. She hides the entire day, genuinely terrified, after what we experienced at the old house. 

I will never forgive the abuse we experienced at the hands of those people and what they did to us. Jude and Jolene were impacted the most by their intentional cruelty. 

I truly hope the longer we are in the new house that Jolene will realize we are safe here and go back to being her normal friendly, outgoing self. She gives so much love to all of us and is truly the life of the house. 

Jolene has checked out every single window in the new house. She has relaxed enough that she is now okay with seeing people outside and does not hide when she sees people outside. She only hides when people come inside. 

Jolene regularly watches our very kind neighbor, Frank, when he helps us with the snowblower. Frank has even joked that he knows he is being “supervised by the furry residents” when he helps with the snow. 

Simon loves playing with Jolene and cuddles her too. With Jude gone, it’s just Jolene and Simon who are very strongly bonded. Flower still lives in her own little world. Flower tolerates Jolene and Simon more now that she did when she first arrived. Progress with Flower moves very slow. 

Ironically, when Jolene does get scared and hides, she hides in the bedroom with Flower. Flower seems okay with it.

Jolene brings so much joy and life. You truly notice when Jolene is subdued or when something is wrong. She is constantly running around playing, observing, and being the center of the house. 

I never expected to end up with a third cat when I was volunteering at the shelter in wait for a cat friendly dog. I am so blessed that Jolene picked me out. After watching all her kittens be adopted, Jolene deserved the best forever home. 

We love Jolene so much. Thank you for bringing the LIFE to our lives.